A family made the heartbreaking decision to put down their beloved young cat after it came home with horrific facial injuries.

Cleo, a four-year-old tabby, is believed to have been battered after she was found with her face covered in blood and jaw hanging open.

Leigh-Ann Trimble, 33, the cat’s owner, said she became worried after the tabby went missing from their home in Clock Face, St Helens , on Thursday, April 28.

Her husband, Will, found the cat under their daughter’s bed in the early hours of Sunday morning, disorientated, with bones coming through at the top of her mouth and teeth shattered.

They went to Companion Care’s vet surgery at Pets At Home in St Helens in the morning, and were told the most caring thing they could do was to put her to sleep.

Leigh-Ann, a home administrator at a nursing home, said: “It was horrible - someone has battered her or hit her with something. The vets ruled out an animal doing it, a road accident and everything except a human doing it.

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“She’s basically been murdered. It makes you feel so angry someone could be so cruel to kill your cat. They have not just killed her, they have broken my heart.

“She was a healthy, four-year-old cat, a baby really. If it were illness or old age I could understand it. It’s going to take ages to come to terms with.

“The vets were brilliant. They gave her anaesthetic and an X-Ray as she wouldn’t let them touch her at first. They said they could do an operation to put in wiring and all sorts, but that it wouldn’t necessarily fix her.

“It would probably still mean months of pain, she’d probably be unable to eat and drink and could die anyway. I couldn’t answer when they said what the options were, but I couldn’t put her through more pain. It was absolutely gut-wrenching.”

She added that her kids were distraught, particularly her daughter Cameron, who has suspected Asperger’s syndrome and found great comfort in cuddling the cat.

She warned other pet owners to keep their animals close by to keep them safe, and said she hoped the same attackers would not harm more animals.